Rethinking the Social Contract: A Ricœurian Perspective, with Dr Laure Gillot-Assayag

Rethinking the Social Contract: A Ricœurian Perspective, with Dr Laure Gillot-Assayag

In this seminar Dr Laure Gillot-Assayag explores how Paul Ricœur’s political philosophy can help us rethink the social contract tradition. Drawing on Ricœur’s ideas of the political paradox, institutional mediation, recognition, vigilance, pluralism, and relational justice, Dr Gillot-Assayag considers how political legitimacy might be grounded not simply in abstract consent, but in the fragile and ongoing work of building just institutions and sustaining life together amid conflict, difference, and historical injustice. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. The seminar took place over Zoom on 12 May 2026, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLw3IQKIKO4 The seminar took place over Zoom on 26 May 2026, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1

Slaves to the Algorithms? Algocracy and republican liberty, with Robert Sparrow

In this seminar Professor Robert Sparrow explores the political and ethical dangers of algocracy: the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence in government decision-making. Drawing on republican political theory, especially the idea of liberty as non-domination, Professor Sparrow asks whether even highly effective AI systems might threaten democratic freedom by making government decisions harder to contest, weakening civic virtues, and expanding the power of surveillance and control. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDyVNWz1qo The seminar took place over Zoom on 26 May 2026, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1

Inclusive Economics: How Could AI Technologies Shape a New Inclusive Economy?, with Simon Angus

This talk investigates how artificial intelligence technologies could shape a new inclusive economy. Beginning with the development of the transformer architecture in 2017 and tracing the rapid integration of AI systems into economic life by 2026, Professor Simon Angus argues that AI should be understood not only through the standard economic lens of a general-purpose technology, but also as a new kind of institutional infrastructure: a mediating layer that shapes who can participate in the economy, and on what terms. The seminar explores the potential of AI to enable new forms of economic inclusion, while also considering the risks it poses around bias, dependency, surveillance, autonomy, and the concentration of power. The aim of the talk is not to provide definitive answers, but to open up a wider discussion about governance, human flourishing, and the social conditions of participation in the new age of AI. Simon Angus is Professor in the School of Business and Economics at Monash University, Australia, and is affiliated as Professor with Impact Labs. His work draws on computational and complexity science, applying methods such as numerical simulation, data science and engineering, machine learning, and agent-based modelling across the social, biological, and physical sciences. His recent work increasingly focuses on projects at the intersection of empirical social science and applied machine learning. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. The seminar took place over Zoom on 27 April 2026, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin, Monash University, as part of the project “Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism”. This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit: https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network [https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network] To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to the SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1 [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1]

Emerging Questions in AI Welfare, with Geoff Keeling

This talk investigates whether artificial intelligence (AI) systems could ever be welfare subjects, understood as entities for which things can go better or worse. Some people argue that AIs could plausibly have or soon have features like consciousness, agency, and the capacity for social relationships, which could in principle provide a basis for AI welfare. These arguments have massive significance for the societal conversation on AI, raising profound ethical and political questions about what if anything we owe to these new technologies. I will provide some philosophical groundwork for a scientific, philosophical, and ultimately democratic inquiry into the potential for AI welfare, addressing key questions that cut across different arguments: what welfare is, how to interpret behavioural evidence of AI welfare, what kinds of entities might qualify as candidate AI welfare subjects, the potential grounds for welfare in AI, and the practical ethical and political challenges that arise from our uncertainty. Dr. Geoff Keeling is a Staff Research Scientist at Google (Google Research). He is a philosopher working on the ethical and societal impacts of AI, with interests including alignment, manipulation, trust, digital minds, and human–AI relationships. Prior to Google, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, and he completed a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Bristol. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7491zZ_OC4 The seminar took place over Zoom on 31 March 2026, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1

Simone de Beauvoir and the “Adventurer”—Navigating the Return to the Common Good, with Mary Townsend

In this seminar Dr. Mary Townsend finds in the work of Simone de Beauvoir, especially The Ethics of Ambiguity, an underappreciated account of the adventurer. Using this figure to chart a course between the "serious man" and the nihilist, Dr. Townsend critically assesses the potential of Beauvoir's adventurer to reorient reflection around the idea of the common good. The seminar is followed by a time of questions and discussion. A video version of the seminar is available at https://youtu.be/RT6Hf9NnbDw The seminar took place over Zoom on 4 November 2025, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". This seminar is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To be notified when future seminars, conversations and interviews are uploaded, you can subscribe to te SCRN YouTube channel by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw?sub_confirmation=1